Nottingham Rock Group, 1969 – 1973. Reformed in 1975.

Photographs from FB posts by Steve Baker

Mick Kitchener: Lead Guitar
Steve Baker: Vocals, Harp
Stefan Dowbenko: Bass, Vocals
Keith White: Drums, Vocals

Mick, born in 1951, is from Carlton. Mick went to the same school as Pete Tattersall although four years younger. Later Pete Tattersall would sometimes step in with Orphan to jam.
At 15 Mick went to the Beachcomber club to see Cream. He had heard of Jack Bruce who had played briefly with Manfred Mann but wasn’t sure what to expect. Although it wasn’t a licensed place he wore a suit so he could get in and sat down at a table. Suddenly a bloke sat down at the table with him and started rambling on about this and that. Mick didn’t know who it was but later when the band took to the stage he saw it was Ginger Baker.

All had been with local bands before coming together in 1969. Mick Kitchener started out in a group called “Sweaty Inch” who changed their name and became Orphan in 1969.

Played regularly on the local rock scene and also supporting some national acts like Wishbone Ash, The Groundhogs and East of Eden. Their local contemporaries were Colin Staples, Hogweed, Centralis, Pancho, Barracuda,Today, Anvil, Dead Lizard, Emery Chase, Riff, Dragonfly, Lazy Jake and early Gaffa. They recorded a demo acetate album in July/August 1971 called “Unadopted” and sent a copy to a London agency. Others were sold locally. Also, in the summer of 1971 they advertised for a lead vocalist. Whether this came to fruition isn’t known.

1970

1971

1972

The record that Orphan recorded was actually a demo acetate album with only maybe 4 copies being made. This album has been long lost with no band member having one. The group travelled down to a studio in Hitchin that they had seen advertised and was within their budget. The studio was called Studio Sound and was owned and operated by Mike Swain.

Some notable recordings from that studio have been the Forever Amber – The Love Cycle album a holy grail for psychedelic pop aficionados and the group The Cortinas who became Octopus. Along with Mike Swain were Engineers Ian Bunting and Chris Brown.

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1973

1975

They reformed in 1975.

I saw them at the Trent embankment in 1975. They did a cover of “Interstellar Overdrive” by Pink Floyd which was quite impressive to me as a “Syd’s Floyd” fan.

The following 4 photos are from Pete Flowers “Plough and Harrow” YouTube video.